R Kelly threatens legal action against Lifetime over documentary series about abuse allegations

R Kelly has threatened legal action against Lifetime if it decides to air an upcoming documentary detailing abuse allegations against the singer.

TMZ reports Kelly’s lawyer Brian Nix has warned the network not to air its Surviving R. Kelly series. If it fails to relent, Nix has threatened to file a federal lawsuit.

Lifetime’s six-part documentary series looks at the singer’s history, and allegations that he has sexually abused women and girls.

A screening of the documentary in Manhattan in early December was evacuated after phone threats were made to the location where it was being held. The New York Police Department said the officers determined there was no immediate threat but decided to have the attendees exit out of an abundance of caution. Among those attending was #MeToo activist Tarana Burke.

Kelly of course has denied doing anything wrong and even claimed that Lifetime knew “some of the girls are lying, but that the budget was too high to turn back now.”

The embattled entertainer is one of the most successful R&B artists of the last two decades, with three Grammy awards, 12 studio albums and some 40 million records sold worldwide. He was accused of child pornography after a widely circulated videotape appeared to show him having sex with, and urinating on, a teenage girl. He was acquitted of all charges in 2008 and continued to rack up hits and sell out stadiums around the country.

(With inputs from The Associated Press)